What is it that observes and is aware of all of the subjective and objective phenomena of life?
It is consciousness itself that is both awareness and the source of experiencing.Ā Both are purely subjective. Consciousness itself is not determined by content; thoughts flowing through consciousness are like fish swimming in the ocean.Ā The ocean’sĀ existence is independent of the fish; the content of the sea does not define the nature of the water.Ā Like a colorless ray, consciousness illuminates the object witnessed – thus its traditional depiction throughout world literature is with “light.”
Identification solely with the content of consciousness accounts for the experience of self as limited. In contrast, to identify with consciousness itself is to know that one’s actual self is unlimited.Ā When circumscribed self-identifications have been surmounted so that the sense of self is identified as consciousness itself, the condition is called, “enlightened.”
Power vs Force, Ch. 21, pg. 272-273